U.S. clinch Group B

THE CANADIAN PRESS

VANCOUVER -- The United States' women's soccer team wasn't about to let Mexico get in its way again.

Midfielder Carli Lloyd led the way with her first career hat trick for the American national team in a 4-0 win over Mexico at the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament.

The United States clinched first place in Group B and will face Costa Rica in Friday's semifinals. Mexico has a tougher semifinal against Group A champion Canada.

The winners of both semifinals qualify for the 2012 London Games.

The last time the two sides met in a competitive game in November 2010 in Cancun, Mexico who came away with a 2-1 victory to qualify for last summer's World Cup. The Americans had to take the long road to qualify by beating Italy in a home and away playoff.

The U.S. served up a bit of payback Tuesday, and gave themselves a less hazardous route to the tournament final.

"It was redemption for us. We came out strong and knew we had to get it done," Lloyd said. "There's no second chances for Olympic qualifying so we made sure that we got into the semifinals and the semifinal is going to be the big one."

Heather O'Reilly scored for the Americans just a minute after Lloyd opened the scoring.

"Well I'm very happy about our four goals and especially Carli Lloyd--the way she was the end product of set pieces. So we did well with set pieces," said U.S. head coach Pia Sundhage.

Mexico will need a better effort to get past Canada and into the Olympics. Canada finished the preliminary round undefeated at 3-0 and outscored its opponents 13-1.

"They have an experienced team and we need to play better than we did today," Mexican head coach Leonardo Cuellar said of the Canadians. "We need to be more concerned about the possession of the ball. Canada has changed their style with the new coach."

U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo is nursing a pulled quad, and was grabbing her right leg at times during the match. She said she became "a little worried" that she would have to leave the game, but she held on to play the entire 90 minutes.

Solo says she hurt the leg about three days ago. She said it was the result of the extra work she's been putting in as she tries to get back into soccer shape after appearing on "Dancing With the Stars." She said she should be ready for the semifinals.

It didn't take long for the Americans to break down a Mexican team that was out-played from start to finish. After Rachel Buehler hit the post with her shot, a fortunate bounce came to Lloyd, who easily headed the ball in to silence a large portion of pro-Mexican fans.

The Americans doubled their advantage just a minute later when Amy Rodriguez led an attack up the left side and lofted a cross into the 18-yard box. Cecilia Santiago, Mexico's 17-year old goalkeeper misjudged the cross and O'Reilly scored from close range.

"They are just the best, simple as that. They're the best team in the world," Cuellar said.

"For us to be in the game we needed to have a good beginning and we didn't have it. We gave away two early goals so the team was not capable to get settled."

The Americans put the game away in the 57th minute. Lauren Cheney took a free kick from the right side and Lloyd added her second goal, rising above the Mexican defence and heading home from close range at the far post.

Lloyd scored the next two goals, with her fourth coming with just four minutes left in the game as she converted from close range on a Megan Rapinoe corner.